What the heck is this?

Charleston Dave

I was shopping for a pork roast to slice onto biscuits for feeding a small party tomorrow, and ran across this:



I've never heard of this cut. Beef eye of round, sure. But pork? It looks like a half-tenderloin-1.1 pounds, about 7 inches long. A tenderloinette?

Anybody know anything about a "boneless pork eye of round roast?"

thirdeye

EDIT: No it's not...see post below.

I's a center cut from the loin, and in addition they have removed one or two of the secondary muscles, leaving only the eye. In this picture, the darker muscle on the edge is most likely removed from your roast.

DrZaius

You have a Super Kmart? weird

thirdeye

It said eye of round.... Let me get the meat book out.

thirdeye

It looks like what you have is the eye from an inside round roast, which comes from the inside of the rear leg, aka fresh ham. The muscles from this area of the leg are known as inside, outside and knuckle.

Charleston Dave

hmm...so cook it how?

Is it dry enough that I need to braise?

Lean enough that I need to avoid low-n-slow and go with a fast cook?

If it's hammy, then it should go well on my biscuits.

thirdeye

Well it won't be "hammy", as it's not cured.

The leg is a lean cut, I've used caution when barbecuing them. I think some time in the pit to get some color and smoke flavor, then a foil or a braise finish. But I'm shooting from the hip here. You will get an idea of how lean it is when you open it up.

Charleston Dave

ya, well, the Pig had no pork roasts. Zero. Nada. So it was off to the Son-of-Sears land of blue light specials.

Charleston Dave

Opening it up, your guess seems accurate, as there is a bit of muscle that didn't get removed, probably the edge muscle from your picture.

I'm gonna go with a low-and-slow precision poach overnight at 130º in orange juice, olive oil, salt & pepper, garlic dust and a tiny bit of fresh rosemary, then a smoke-sear Egg finish tomorrow for external sear and more flavor.



I'll let you know how it turns out.

Worst case, I can just serve biscuits! :ohmy:

Crimsongator

Yeah a round is beef and ham is pork. I think the buther may have hit the whickey a bit hard before labeling!

thirdeye

Ahhhh. Now looking at your picture it looks more like the outside muscle. Your butcher would know it as a NAMP 402E, trimmed.

Yes, keep us informed as to how that bad boy comes out.

emilluca

Not!!!
There is a muscle that can be calle Eye of Round in a fresh ham. Animal's that walk on 4 legs are the same structure.
It would not bevery tender.
Next time you look at a shank portion ham you will see the Top round Bottom round and Eye of round muscle.
A whole fresh ham with the Sirloin Tip part taken off will look like a Beef Round Steak. Usually pork is not broken down into smaller parts but certainly can be.

Charleston Dave

OK, let's call it a (rear) leg muscle that could be cured into ham.

Whatever it was, it was tasty. I vacuum-sealed it with olive oil, a small pinch of garlic powder, orange juice, about a tenth of a sprig of fresh rosemary, salt and freshly ground pepper, and held it at 130ºF for an extended period to cook through the core. Here's how it looked when done:



To add color, sear marks and a bit of smoke flavor, I sprinkled on a little DP Swamp Venom and did an Egg cast iron grate sear over hickory chips for 30 seconds per side, dome 550ºF, giving this:



Sliced 5/8"" thick for roast pork sammies:






Served on a dinner roll (my biscuits didn't work out, but that's another topic) with a drizzle of Carnivore, it was extremely juicy, porky and fragrant, and hit all the citrus/herb/olive oil/garlic flavors:

Seven folks eating, cost of meat was 40 cents each, everybody happy.

emilluca

You cal it hero I cal gyro.
Meat men will call it anything to make more per pound.
What makes Beef the only Eye of round?
Sorry not trying to cause an argument. You showed a rib end pork loin and that is to where near the rump.
E

emilluca

The eye is a muscle within a muscle. It is part of the bottom round muscle or inside round.
Yes I using terms normally used for beef but pork muscle has the same structure.

The outside is normally called top round and the top muscle is trimmed off at a natural seam and the bottom is cut in half latterly and sold as London Broil is some markets
The inside round has a natural seam that separates into bottom round and eye of round. There is also a separate muscle on the inside round toward the leg that is used for Heel of Round roast.

Iowa meat reproducers would seperate pork into more primal parts in order to gain more profit from the animal.
There is no reason to hink they would not follow the beef model.

It was not a long time ago that sellers could not buy unless it was just foreguarter or hind quarter together.

Packing house started breaking into smaller cuts and now even cut and pacakge for the walmart and target of the world.

E
Again not a FLAME just reality.

j

we call them pork fish in Gettysburg area.